Noor Wali Mehsud has renewed the TTP’s allegiance to the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in the wake of the jihadis’ victory. The Taliban has released numerous TTP and al Qaeda figures from the former government’s prisons in recent weeks, including Faqir Mohammed.
The TTP claimed yesterday’s suicide bombing in Quetta, Pakistan, saying the “martyrdom-seeking” operation targeted Pakistani officials.
The Pakistani Taliban announced today that two splinter factions, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA) and Hizb-ul-Ahrar (HuA), have rejoined the organization.
ISIS orchestrated an assault on the main prison in Jalalabad earlier this month. Afghan officials immediately accused the Taliban of planning the attack.
Muft Noor Wali Mehsud’s Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, which remains allied with Al Qaeda, has stepped up small scale operations against Pakistani security forces in both North and South Waziristan over the past several months.
The Pakistani Taliban announced today that its leading ideologue, Khalid Haqqani, has been killed alongside one of his colleagues. Haqqani was a key jihadist thinker and author for the group.
According to a recently released report by a UN Security Council monitoring team, the Taliban is the “primary partner for all foreign terrorist groups operating in Afghanistan,” including al Qaeda. The only exception is the Islamic State, which opposes the Taliban.
The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for two suicide bombings this month, one in Balochistan and the other in Swat. At least 11 Pakistani soldiers were killed in the attack in Swat. The jihadists controlled Swat from 2007 to 2009, when Pakistani forces removed them from power. The group has claimed at least 5 “martyrdom” operations thus far in 2018, after claiming 11 in all of 2017.
The State Department’s newly released Country Reports on Terrorism says that Pakistan “did not take substantial action against the Afghan Taliban,” including the Haqqani Network, in 2016. The Taliban’s leadership has long had a presence in Pakistan.
An American soldier was killed while fighting the Islamic State’s jihadists in eastern Afghanistan. While the Wilayah Khorasan (or Khorasan province) has suffered significant losses since early 2016, it still maintains a significant operational capacity and can mount high-profile attacks.
The Pakistani Taliban confirmed today that Qari Muhammad Yasin, a senior al Qaeda military commander, was killed along with three of his “companions” in a US drone strike on Mar. 19. The airstrike was carried out in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktika province. Yasin was a member of the Punjabi Taliban, which includes jihadists from various other Pakistani terrorist organizations who are aligned with al Qaeda.
Earlier today, Pakistani Taliban spokesman Muhammad Khorasani denied reports that his group was going to join Abu Bakr al Baghdadi’s Islamic State. Khorasani said that these reports are “false” and based on “lies.” There are multiple indications that al Qaeda helped reorganize the current Pakistani Taliban coalition this year.
The Pakistani Taliban has released a lengthy statement rejecting Abu Bakr al Baghdadi’s claim to be the new caliph. The group praises Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar, as well as deceased al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his successor, Ayman al Zawahiri.
The Islamic State claims it operates in multiple Afghan provinces, and runs a training camp in Farah.
The spokesman for al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) has released a statement condemning the Pakistani Taliban’s attack on a Peshawar school earlier this week, calling it “un-Islamic.”
The Afghan Taliban has released a statement condemning the Pakistani Taliban’s attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar.
The spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban announced that he and five other leaders had defected to the Islamic State this week. The bulk of the organization had already broken off earlier this year.
Asim Umar, al Qaeda’s top sharia official in Pakistan, will be holding a Q&A session online in May. The appearance is being promoted on social media.
AQAP’s latest edition of Inspire magazine purports to show jihadists how to make car bombs similar to the one used by Faisal Shahzad, who was responsible for the failed May 2010 bombing in Times Square.
The statement, released nearly a month after Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike, said his death “was very heavy on our souls and pained us.”
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has joined other jihadist groups in releasing a statement praising Hakeemullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban commander killed earlier this month. Ansar al Sharia Tunisia posted the message on one of its official Facebook pages.
Shabaab’s statement praises Hakeemullah Mehsud, who was recently killed in a US drone strike, and offers condolences to Mullah Omar and Ayman al Zawahiri.
Like AQAP’s statement on Mehsud’s death, Jaish al Ummah praised Hakeemullah and “the tribes of Waziristan” for fighting the “crusader enemy” in Afghanistan.
In a new statement, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula offered its condolences for the death of Hakeemullah Mehsud, the former emir of the Pakistani Taliban. The terror group praised Mehsud and the Pakistani Taliban for providing haven to foreign fighters.
Latif Mehsud, a top deputy to Hakeemullah Mehsud, the emir of the al Qaeda-linked Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, is said to have been captured by US forces while being escorted by the NDS after conducting a meeting to exchange Afghan prisoners for cash.
According to Syrian opposition sources cited by The Wall Street Journal, some light weapons and ammunition “funneled” by the CIA into Syria have been captured by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an al Qaeda affiliate.
The Daily Beast reports that a conference call involving “more than 20 al Qaeda operatives” is what prompted the closing of more than 20 US diplomatic facilities.
Maulana Asim Umar, a Pakistani Taliban and al Qaeda propagandist, is featured in a new message disseminated by As Sahab. Umar calls on Indian Muslims to take part in the “global jihad” and emphasizes the importance of the fight in Syria.